Under New Ownership

All right, well, most of us have uh probably had the experience before of walking by or driving by a business of some kind and seeing a big sign in the window that says under new ownership.

Maybe that's even happened to you at a place where you are a regular customer.

Maybe you showed up one day to go there as a customer again and you saw that sign in the window without even knowing beforehand that a change of any kind was coming.

Well, those three words, under new ownership, regardless of what kind of business it is, whether it's a restaurant, whether it's a clothing store, whether it's a car wash, whatever it is, when we see that sign in the window, there is at least one thing that we know for sure.

We might have other questions as well, right?

We might be wondering how many changes are coming or if the prices are going to be going up or if the products and services are going to be changing at all.

But at a minimum, there's at least one thing that we know for sure.

Someone else is in charge now.

And whether or not the new owner has a different way of doing things, that'll become clear soon enough.

But what is already clear right from the jump is that someone decided to buy that business, make it their own, and now they are calling the shots.

I noticed something kind of funny this summer that the little ice cream shop that we have down the road here in town, which used to be called Mickey's, is now called Ricky's.

From what I can tell, nothing else has changed.

Everything looks the same.

In fact, I thought I was being punked when I saw it.

But apparently Ricky bought the business from Mickey, and now Ricky is in charge.

So if you know someone named Nicky, maybe they're next.

But again, those three words, under new ownership, designate the fact that somebody else is in charge now.

Well, last week we finished up our series in the book of Joshua, and one of the realities that plays out from start to finish in that book is the fact that the land of Canaan is officially under new ownership.

Now, just to be clear, we should realize that God already owned Canaan before the events in the book of Joshua took place.

He's the creator of heaven and earth, he owns all of his creation, whether we acknowledge that reality or not, right?

Psalm 24, David says, the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, everything in it belongs to him, which is exactly why God had the authority to give that land to Abraham's descendants, because you cannot give something away that you do not first own.

So, yes, technically, God already owned the land of Canaan.

However, now that his promise to Abraham has been fulfilled and the Israelites have inherited the land, the Lord has now taken up residence in Canaan in a unique and special way that was not true before.

We're told in Joshua 18 that the tabernacle, which was the place where God's special presence dwelt among his people under the old covenant, was set up at a city called Shiloh within the borders of the promised land, which means by the end of the book of Joshua, God and his people have officially moved in together into Canaan and put the surrounding nations on notice that someone else is in charge now.

The false gods of the Canaanite nations are no longer calling the shots because they have now been proven to be fake and powerless.

And the evil practices that were going on there of child sacrifice and sexual immorality and idolatrous worship are no longer going to be tolerated because the one true God who created heaven and earth has officially pitched his tent in the land of Canaan and declared his ownership over that place.

And so one of the many things that we could say about the book of Joshua is that at the beginning of the book, the current inhabitants of the promised land mistakenly believed that their cruel, false gods owned the place where they lived.

But by the end of the book, after the Lord had given the Israelites victory in battle and they finally inherited the land, there was now officially a proverbial sign in the window of the land of Canaan that said, under new ownership.

Or to put it another way, the book of Joshua ends with God's covenant people finally living in God's promised place under the loving authority and power of God.

And that being the case, they were expected to remain obedient and faithful to the God who had been so loving and faithful to them.

But sadly, instead of that being the happy ending of the story, that's really just the end of the first chapter of the life of Israel in the Promised Land.

In fact, when we decided to do a sermon series in Joshua, we actually chose to do it as a two-part series.

So part one, we concluded last week when we finished the book of Joshua, and part two begins today as we continue into the next chapter of Israel's life in Canaan with the very next book of the Bible, the book of Judges.

Now, this book gets its title from twelve individuals within the nation of Israel who were appointed by the Lord on different occasions to deliver the Israelites out of times of trouble.

Joshua chapter I'm sorry, Judges chapter two, verses sixteen through eighteen.

This is an important passage for understanding the historical context of this book, and it says this.

Yet they did not listen to their judges, for they hoard after other gods and bowed down to them.

They soon turned aside from the way in which their fathers had walked, who had obeyed the commandments of the Lord, and they did not do so.

Whenever the Lord raised up judges for them, the Lord was with the judge, and he saved them from the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge.

For the Lord was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who afflicted and oppressed them.

Now in today's world, when you hear the word judge, you probably picture Judge Judy.

You picture somebody in a black robe with a gavel presiding over a court of law.

But that's not what the Israelite judges were.

These were individuals who the Lord sovereignly raised up into temporary positions of leadership to deliver his people out of very specific situations within the nation.

In fact, there's a six-step pattern or cycle that gets repeated throughout the book of Judges over and over again, and that cycle is this.

So he gives them over to their enemies until they eventually cry out to him for help, so he raises up a judge to rescue them, and they experience a period of rest until that judge dies, and then they rebel against God again, and the whole pattern begins all over again.

This is really the overarching cycle of the book.

And that being the case, some commentators have suggested that instead of calling it the book of judges, which is just the title that we have for it, we should maybe call it the book of saviors.

Because we're explicitly told in chapter 2, verse 16, that the Lord raised up judges who saved them.

So these are kind of miniature saviors, so to speak.

So again, don't picture the black robe and the gavel.

Picture individual people, normal people who God raises up to save and deliver the Israelites from times of trouble and oppression.

But one of the tragic ironies of this book is that their times of trouble and oppression throughout the story are entirely self-inflicted.

And we know that because one of the other patterns that gets repeated throughout the book of Judges is this.

You'll hear this statement.

That's always that first domino that falls in the cycle, and that leads to God handing them over to their enemies until they cry out for help, and then he raises up a judge to help them, and then there's this period of peace and rest until they rebel again, and the whole thing starts all over again.

And that cyclical nature of the narrative is meant to convey to us a certain level of instability within the nation of Israel.

Instability that's the direct, that is directly connected to one final pattern that we see repeated toward the end of the book.

In the last few chapters, four different times, we see some version of the following statement.

That becomes a pattern toward the end of the book.

And so when we bring together the various cycles and patterns that appear throughout the book, the story of Judges is basically this: in the absence of a faithful king to lead them, the Israelite people who are living in the promised land constantly commit evil against the Lord, which leads to God's discipline and persecution from their enemies, but God repeatedly responds in grace and mercy to their cries for help by raising up deliverers who save them and provide long periods of peace until those deliverers die and then they rebel all over again.

It is super encouraging.

You're gonna love it.

All joking aside, this is a book of both tragedy and triumph.

It reveals our human tendency to tragically choose sin and evil over faith and obedience, but it also reveals God's tendency to triumph over sin and evil by providing salvation and deliverance for his people.

And among other things, it also shows us our desperate need for a faithful king.

A faithful king who can supply permanent peace and rest, and who can finally break the cycle of evil and rebellion.

And so as we dive into this book of Judges this morning, I'm gonna summarize really what's going on in chapter one first, and then we're gonna cover the first five verses of chapter two as well, and we're gonna do all of that in two parts.

So, part one, I'm calling continual compromise, and part two, I'm calling covenantal consequences.

So, first the narrator describes some repeated and sneaky disobedience on the part of the Israelites, on the part of their tribes within the promised land, and then second, we're given a brief summary of the direct ramifications of that disobedience for the next few generations of God's covenant people.

So there's continual compromise and covenantal consequences, and we will see that all of this ties directly into the fact that the land of Canaan is under new ownership.

So we'll go ahead and begin with part one of our passage, continual compromise, by just reading the very first verse of the book of Judges.

Judges 1:1

Chapter 1, verse 1 says this.

Now I want us to notice that the first four words we just read after the death of, those are the same first four words of the book of Joshua as well.

There we read after the death of Moses, and here we read after the death of Joshua.

So both of these books, Joshua and Judges, begin by introducing us to the aftermath of the death of Israel's primary leader.

And so, in that sense, the opening lines are very similar.

However, there's also an important difference between them because in the first instance, with Joshua, we're told that after the death of Moses, the Lord spoke directly with Joshua.

Joshua had been selected by the Lord to be Moses' successor.

But in the second instance, here in Judges, we're told that after the death of Joshua, the people of Israel inquired of the Lord.

And that little detail represents a significant shift in Israel's history because up until this point, God's covenant people had always had one primary leader.

One primary leader who was the intermediary between God and his people.

In the book of Genesis, there were the successive patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and then from the Exodus out of Egypt all the way to the edge of the promised land, it was Moses, and then during the conquest of Canaan and the possessing of and inheriting the land, it was Joshua.

But now after the death of Joshua, there is no longer a primary leader for the Israelites.

And because of that, we're simply told that after Joshua died, the people brought an inquiry to the Lord.

So, right out of the gate, the narrator is setting the stage for the fact that things are about to get pretty unstable within the nation, because without a reliable and faithful leader to represent the people, chaos and disorder are bound to take place.

In fact, the rest of verse one reveals the fact that some of those signs of instability were already present, because when the people bring this inquiry to the Lord, they specifically ask him, Who shall go up first for us against the Canaanites to fight against them?

Now, if you were here for the whole duration of the book of Joshua that we just finished, that might raise a question for you.

It might seem odd to you.

After all, didn't we just get done learning about how God kept all of his covenant promises and he gave the land of Canaan to Abraham's descendants as an inheritance?

And didn't we just read multiple weeks of stories where the Israelites were in battle with the Canaanites and defeating them in battle?

So then why are the people asking God for direction on how to fight with the Canaanites again?

I thought they were defeated.

Well, multiple times throughout the book of Joshua, we were told that the Israelites failed to fully drive out the Canaanite people groups from the land.

For example, in chapter 15 of Joshua, the tribe of Judah failed to drive out the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

In chapter 16, the tribe of Ephraim failed to drive out the inhabitants of Gizer.

In chapter 17, the tribe of Manasseh failed to drive out the inhabitants of multiple Canaanite cities.

So at the end of Joshua's life, yes, God had delivered on his promises.

Yes, the Israelite tribes had all inherited their land and received their inheritance, but there were still a lot of Canaanite people dwelling in the land because the Israelite tribes had failed to drive them out completely.

Now, why is that a problem?

It's a problem because God was explicitly clear with them that if they did not fully remove the Canaanite people groups from the land, it would only be a matter of time before Israel would begin worshipping the false Canaanite gods and abandon the Lord.

But instead of fully obeying that command, the Israelite tribes continually compromised.

Really by choosing the path of least resistance instead.

And that being the case, Judges chapter 1 basically gives us a status update on that continual compromise by describing additional battles that are now required within the promised land as a result of Israel's repeated sneaky disobedience and compromise.

Judges 1 · chapter mention

And the battles that are described in the first half of the chapter are fought by the tribe of Judah because God sends them to fight and promises to give them victory over the Canaanites.

But about halfway through the chapter, the battles all give way to a specific pattern that now becomes the focal point for the second half of chapter one, beginning with verse 19, which says this.

See this failure on the part of Judah to drive out the inhabitants of the plain, that specific failure gets repeated six more times in chapter one regarding the other tribes as well.

Verse 21, the people of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebuzites from Jerusalem.

Verse 27, the people of Manasseh did not drive out the inhabitants of their territory.

Verse 29, the people of Ephraim did not drive out the Canaanites from their territory.

Verse 30, the people of Zebulun did not drive out the inhabitants from their territory.

Verse 31, the people of Asher did not drive out the inhabitants from their territory.

And then verse 33, the people of Naphtali did not drive out the inhabitants from their territory.

And while this pattern is unfolding in the second half of the chapter, the narrator tells us multiple times that the Canaanites persisted in dwelling in the land.

So again, instead of fully obeying God's command to drive out the Canaanites with all of their evil practices and their false worship, the Israelite tribes continually compromised by choosing the path of least resistance.

In fact, verse 28 says this.

When Israel grew strong, they put the Canaanites to forced labor, but did not drive them out completely.

So not only did they disobey the Lord's command, but on top of that, rather than sending the Canaanites packing, they just forced them to work instead.

They made them their slaves.

In his commentary on Judges, Tim Keller writes this.

And so convenience trumps obedience.

So chapter one provides us this status update on the continual compromise of evil of Israel, and the update is not good.

Comfort and convenience are dictating the decisions of God's people rather than faith and obedience.

And the path of least resistance has become their default way of life rather than wholehearted devotion to the God who had saved them.

Which is why, as we move into part two of our passage, we discover that there are some covenantal consequences for their disobedience.

Continuing with verses one through five of chapter two.

Now the angel of the Lord went up from Gilgal to Bochim, and he said, I brought you up from Egypt and brought you into the land that I swore to give to your fathers.

I said, I will never break my covenant with you, and you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land.

You shall break down their altars, but you have not obeyed my voice.

What is this that you have done?

So now I say, I will not drive them out before you.

But they shall become thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare to you.

As soon as the angel of the Lord spoke these words to all the people of Israel, the people lifted up their voices and wept, and they called the name of that place Bochim, and they sacrificed there to the Lord.

Now you may recall from early on in the book of Joshua that Gilgal was the place where the Israelites built this big memorial out of twelve large stones after God held back the waters of the Jordan River so that they could cross over into the promised land on dry ground.

And it was also the place where they renewed their covenant with God and they celebrated the Passover and officially launched the conquest into Canaan, which is to say that Gilgal was a place that represented the beginning of Israel's official inheritance.

It was the first location on the map within the boundaries of the Promised Land that held any real theological or historical significance to the Israelite people, and that is exactly why the narrator goes out of his way right here to mention the fact that the angel of the Lord sets out from Gilgal to go speak with the people.

Because he's emphasizing to the reader that the same God who faithfully brought them across the Jordan into Gilgal, and who brought them from Gilgal into the territories of inheritance, that is the God who is now coming.

To confront them about their failure to remain faithful to him while they enjoy the inheritance that he gave them.

It's almost like he's retracing their steps from the memorial at Gilgal to their current situation and location.

And so the angel of the Lord comes from Gilgal to confront them.

And by the way, just as a quick side note, the angel of the Lord here is most likely a pre-incarnate manifestation of Christ, which is why he proceeds to remind them about all the things that he personally had done for them.

He doesn't say the Lord did these things for you.

He says, I did these things for you.

He's speaking in the first person rather than the third person.

But in doing so, he says, I brought you out of slavery in Egypt and into this land that I promised to your ancestors.

And I specifically told you that I would never break my covenant with you.

And I also commanded you not to make a covenant or an agreement of any kind with the inhabitants of Canaan, and make sure you tear down their places of false idol worship, but instead you've rebelled against me.

You did not obey my voice.

What is this that you have done?

Michael Wilcock writes this about this interaction.

He says, It's as though the Lord is saying, I have sworn to give you all of this land, yet I also have sworn not to give all of it to a disobedient people.

So now you've put me in an impossible situation.

See, God promised their fathers that he would be faithful always to his covenant with them, but he also promised that he would punish them if they were unfaithful to the covenant.

And so now their blatant disobedience is bringing about these covenantal consequences.

Specifically, the Lord tells them in verse 3, I won't drive them out before you.

In other words, because you disobeyed me and you refused to drive out the Canaanites from your territories, now I won't drive them out either.

If you're not going to drive them out, then I'm not going to drive them out.

Instead, they're going to dwell among you in the land, and they're going to be thorns in your sides, and their false gods are going to be a snare to you.

Which means rather than experiencing peace and rest in the promised land like you were supposed to, instead, the remaining Canaanites are going to give you all kinds of grief, all kinds of trouble.

They're going to want to fight with you, they're going to steal from you, they're going to oppress you, they're going to be thorns in your side in the land and create all kinds of chaos.

Also, rather than living in a beautiful relationship with the one true God who saved you from slavery in Egypt and made a covenant with you, instead, you're going to find yourselves getting sucked into Canaanite idol worship.

And slowly but surely you will abandon the Lord and get seduced into all kinds of evil practices because they will tempt you, they will lure you, they will pull you in, and their false gods will be a snare that will trap and enslave you without you even realizing that it is happening.

These are the covenantal consequences of their continual compromise.

And these are the conditions in which God graciously raises up twelve different judges or saviors to deliver them from various times of trouble throughout the course of this book.

But when the people hear these words from the angel of the Lord, they raise up their voices and collectively weep, which is why that location is given the name Bokim, because Bokim means weepers.

And unfortunately, the repeated cycle that is about to unfold in this book demonstrates the fact that the weeping in this scene was the result of temporary remorse rather than true repentance.

It's very common for someone to feel regret or remorse when they realize the consequences of their action in a given moment, but remorse is not necessarily the same thing as repentance.

If I'm remorseful, I feel bad for a little while.

I feel guilty for a little while, but if I'm repentant, then I try to make a change that will actually last.

Remorse means momentary sadness in my mind.

Repentance means ongoing shift in my soul.

And sadly, the cyclical pattern in Judges proves the fact that we see a lot of temporary remorse in this book, but we see very little true repentance in this book.

And the truth is, this wasn't just a problem for the Canaanites living, or for the Israelites living in Canaan.

It remains a problem for us living today.

It is very easy to mistake regret and remorse for repentance.

It's very easy to constantly fall into the same traps of sin and disobedience over and over and over and over again and feel really bad about it for a little while.

Feel guilty about it for a little while.

But when that feeling of remorse wears off, which it always does, we just get sucked right back into that same cycle of sin all over again.

I think the reason that this happens so easily is because fundamentally we constantly forget the same thing that the Israelites continued to forget.

They kept forgetting that the Lord had saved them, had purchased them out of slavery, and that Israel as a people and Canaan as a place were under new ownership.

And likewise, we constantly forget that Christ has saved us, that he has purchased us, purchased us, which therefore means we are under new ownership.

Church, Jesus owns every territory of our lives.

Jesus owns every territory of our lives.

See, at best, I think at best we could say that the Israelites may have believed that they as a people and Canaan as a place were under new management.

But a change in management is different than a change in ownership.

So when we see that big sign in the window of a business that says under new management, all that really means is that someone else is handling the operations now and making sure everything runs smoothly, but the new manager isn't really in charge.

The same owner is still in charge.

And I think the cyclical behavior of the Israelites reveals the fact that they believed the Lord was their new manager, but not their owner.

So it was God's job to handle the operations and make sure everything runs smoothly for them and make sure life is comfortable and convenient and easy.

But in actuality, they were still the owners.

They were in charge of their territories, they were in charge of their lives, which meant that if they wanted to pick and choose which commands to follow and which commands to compromise on, they could do that.

If they wanted to let the Canaanites continue living in their territory and turn them into slaves rather than driving them out like God told them to do, they could do that because at the end of the day, the owner gets to call the shots.

If they truly believed that the Lord was their owner rather than just their manager, then their sin would be met with ongoing repentance rather than just momentary remorse.

Because they would constantly remember that the Lord had saved them, he had purchased them, and that obedience to him and faithfulness to him are not just required, although they are, but they are also what is truly best for them.

And the same goes for us.

Our cyclical behavior throughout the Christian life reveals the fact that very often we believe Jesus is our manager, but not our owner.

So it's his job to handle some of the operations and make sure things run smoothly for us and things don't get too difficult and we're comfortable, but but we're the owners.

We're in charge of our lives, which means if we want to pick and choose which parts of the Bible to emphasize and follow and which parts to underemphasize and not follow, we can do that because at the end of the day, the owner gets to call the shots.

And since all of us are susceptible to this, I think all of us should consider the following question this morning.

Are there any territories in your life where you are refusing to drive out sin and refusing to give up ownership?

The Israelite tribes continually compromised and took the path of least resistance by refusing to drive out the Canaanites from their territories and refusing to give up ownership to the Lord.

So what about us?

What about you?

Are there any territories in your life where you've been continually compromising?

Taking the path of least resistance, refusing to drive out sin, refusing to give up ownership to Jesus.

Maybe it's the territory of your finances.

Are you refusing to drive out the sin of greed?

Are you refusing to practice the kind of generosity that flows from a joyful recognition that Jesus is the owner of your money?

What about the territory of your time?

Are you refusing to drive out the sin of passivity?

Are you refusing to practice the kind of gospel servanthood that contributes and helps and flows from a joyful recognition that Jesus is the owner of your calendar?

What about the territory of your relationships?

Are you refusing to drive out the sins of pride and hostility?

Are you refusing to practice the kind of forgiveness and pardon that flow from a joyful recognition that Jesus is the owner of your relational connections?

What about the territory of your sexuality?

Are you refusing to drive out sexual sin and lust, whether online or in person?

Are you refusing to practice the kind of self-control and restraint that flow from a joyful recognition that Jesus is the owner of your body and your imagination?

What about the territory of your speech?

Are you refusing to drive out the sins of gossip and slander?

Are you refusing to practice the kind of vernacular that flows from a joyful recognition that Jesus is the owner of your mouth?

I could go on and on and on.

Is there a territory of your life where you have been continually compromising?

Where you've been taking the path of least resistance.

Church, if we truly believe that Jesus is our owner and not just our manager, then our sin would be met with ongoing repentance, not just momentary remorse, because we would constantly remember Jesus has saved us, He has pardoned us, He has purchased us, and that obedience to Him and faithfulness to Him are not just required, although they are, but are also what is truly best for us.

But the reality is that even at our best, you and I are incapable of fully breaking free from the cycle of our sin.

Even at our best, we are incapable of fully driving out the sin and the evil from our hearts.

As I mentioned earlier, the book of Judges is a story of both tragedy and triumph.

So it reveals our human tendency to tragically choose sin and evil over and over and over again rather than choosing faith and obedience, but it also reveals God's tendency to triumph over sin and evil and provide salvation and deliverance for his people, and also shows us our desperate need for a faithful king who can supply permanent peace and rest and can finally break the cycle of evil and rebellion.

And thank God, hundreds of years after the time of the judges, that faithful king came.

But he did not arrive in typical royal fashion.

Instead, God the Son humbly lowered himself and was born in a manger and subjected himself to the hardship and suffering of this world.

But when he faced temptation from the enemy, rather than compromising or taking the path of least resistance, he drove out the devil and declared that the kingdom of God had finally come and proceeded to lay down his life by being nailed to a cross for the citizens of his kingdom, so that by grace through faith in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, even when we fall back into our sinful tendencies, we are given permanent forgiveness and permanent peace with our Creator because the cycle of our sin has been defeated and it is powerless and has been broken forever.

If you are here this morning and you have never placed your faith in Jesus, I pray that today would be the day that you do.

I pray that you would look to him today, that you would look to his cross, that you would believe in him, surrender your life to him as your faithful king, and he will give you permanent forgiveness and peace because he loves to triumph over sin and evil by providing salvation and deliverance.

And for those of us who have already done that, who've already been born again, believed the gospel and have trusted in Christ, this passage reminds us that there is a proverbial sign in the window of our lives that says, under new ownership.

Which means our sin should not be met.

I'm sorry, our sin should be met with ongoing repentance, not just momentary remorse.

By God's grace and by the power of his spirit, we should be driving out sin from all areas of our life because we should constantly remember we've been saved, we've been purchased, and from now into eternity, Jesus owns every territory of our life.

And that is incredibly good news.

Let's pray.